This is the Build Thread for Eagle Talon TSI - FWD. Reply below.

hey im not too far from you, i live in london! if you need any parts or help let me know! just shoot me a pm

Hey, will do! Always loved meeting DSM people from around Ontario. =)

I used to have a 1997 Eclipse GST that I converted to AWD with an HX35 and plenty of supporting mods. (I guess it's still my display picture ..) Loved wrenching on the car and it hurt to let it go about 10 years back. Ended up parting it out, invested the profits, and bought a house a few years later with the profits. So... not all bad.
Fast forward to now, call it nostalgia or missing real boost (daily is a 2010 Jetta TDI) I picked this car up in southern Virgina this past November, non running condition, came with a few goodies. I got it running shortly after bringing it across the border.

I'll upload more pictures and videos soon. I'm planning on coming down to London one of these days to meet Byron, he's got a few things for me.

oh god that guy . im just kidding hes a good guy, him and i hang out a couple times a week

So the start of this story takes place this past November when I took a road trip with my dad down to southern Virginia to pickup this 1995 Eagle Talon TSI for $3000 USD.
Having previously owned a 1998 Eclipse GST that I converted to AWD, I was really looking for a 2g AWD platform but my budget couldn't afford one.
I had seen the listing on Facebook marketplace which claimed "NO RUST" and "CAR RUNS AND DRIVES FINE" for a FWD TSI. The car had to be pushed downhill...onto the trailer as it wouldn't start. =) Off to a good start.

Here is a picture of the Talon hitched up to our Sprinter for the ride back to Canada.



"NO RUST"


I had used a customs broker to help with exporting the car from the United States and importing into Canada to hopefully mediate/mitigate any issues we may have. Not sure I can post links, but I used clearit dot ca, and the process went relatively smoothly. We offloaded the car onto the street, as we (my father, the neighbour and myself) could not push the car up the driveway.
The next morning, I headed to Princess Auto to get a new battery as the existing one would not hold a charge. I was anxious to get the car off the road and into the driveway and recorded the following clip of the car "running".

Check out these spark plugs... Some copper, some iridium, the gaps were all different and the spark temp ratings were all different as well. What the heck?!


OK, so I replaced them with a set of NGK bpr7es, and I connected my laptop to the car to see what ECM Link could tell me...wait what?



I verified the serial numbers on the injectors were PTE/Delphi 1000cc injectors, but the previous owner had set them to 750cc, and then pulled up to 40% of fuel on the Fuel Adjustments Table. WHY!?


Also, he has an AEM wideband installed, but... not connected to the ECU for any logging. No wires to the ECU, and obviously no ECM Link configuration.


Speaking of the wideband sensor.. for whatever reason is way downstream...with it's wire, just dangling there.


After making the necessary adjustments to ECM Link, replacing the front o2 with a brand new one, and a new Cam Position Sensor (95/96)... we have life. Still needs A LOT of work, but the car runs, and has a healthy compression of 180 across all four cylinders!

Here is a picture of the engine bay, from the listing. If you look closely you can see some PVC piping....(between the BOV and throttle body elbow) it's going to take a lot of love to restore this car to anywhere near where my old 98 Eclipse was.


I had some cluster backlighting issues; to which I replaced the bulbs with leds, verified all fuses were in their right spots and not blown. I confirmed power and ground at the connectors on the behind the cluster, and ended up fixing one ground...but still, no backlight. Finally decided to try bypassing the dimmer switch, and we have light!
You may also notice it now reads in kilometers now... I had purchased a known working cluster, but it wouldn't work until I bypassed the dimmer. Took the speedo from that one and switched it into the Talon's instrument cluster.


Things are going well, my friend suggests taking the injectors out to get them flowtested and cleaned. In removing the fuel rail and injectors, two of these injectors "pintle caps" fell into the intake and head... lucky me. Now I have to remove the battery, throttle body, cruise control, and intake manifold to get these pintle caps out.



Might as well giver a bath in some degreaser and elbow grease. I might consider painting it, but haven't done so yet.


Since the temperature has been cold lately in Canada and I really don't want to freeze outside, figured I'd clean the headlights too.
A before and after shot.




I built a boost leak tester for when I get things put back together in the spring. Planning to do an ABS delete first and need to get those parts. I've purchased brand new sensors and gaskets for pretty much the entire the engine bay. Have a few things I will eventually list for sale, stock and aftermarket. Will update this thread when I get more things done and worth posting.

I got under the hood and inside the car yesterday. Ended up removing the abs proportioning valve as I intend to remove the ABS. While I was there I removed the charcoal canister under the battery tray and the valve cover. I want the engine to clean of any oil and grime, and although it's too cold to clean the engine, I can give the valve cover a facelift.

The pictures, I included are the original state of the valve cover.

After a thorough de-greasing I primed the valve cover with an engine primer followed by 3 base coats and and two color coats.



I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, the de-greasing was my least favorite part, took me 2-3 hours until I was satisfied. Worth the effort. I've since cleaned the threads on the valve cover.

From the inside I just removed the sagging headliner. I'm still not sure if I'm going to keep the material and just re-glue it into place; or remove it, sand the foam, and reupholster it. Thoughts?

I’d re do the headliner, mine was sagging in my 1g and I found plenty of helpful videos on YouTube and found it wasn’t too difficult, and a new headliner looks waay better than a bare roof in my opinion

Good Job on the valve cover too! Looks NICE

What was the paint type you used? Can it withstand heat and prolonged oil contact? It's a beaut colour

curt-s said:

What was the paint type you used? Can it withstand heat and prolonged oil contact? It's a beaut colour

Click to expand...

I used DupliColor engine enamel primer with ceramic, capable of handling temps of 500f/260c.
I then used their Metalcast line of paints, base coat and anodized coating.

Should have no issues with the oil or temps, but time will tell.

1cleangsx said:

I’d re do the headliner, mine was sagging in my 1g and I found plenty of helpful videos on YouTube and found it wasn’t too difficult, and a new headliner looks waay better than a bare roof in my opinion

Click to expand...

I originally wanted to replace the headliner and that would probably give me the better finish too. I'll keep you posted on my journey.

Been awhile since I've updated you all, so here come some more progress pictures and what not.
The carpet was pretty ugly and stained.



Gave it a quick bath, some de-greaser and a brush on a drill to agitate it. Came out better than expected, not perfect, but WAYYY better than before.



Also had the brake calipers rebuilt for piece of mind while it was cold and still winter time. New pads and rotors to go along with the refreshed rebuilt calipers. Purchased STM's ABS delete kit as well, and cleaned up all of the ABS related stuff from the engine bay/fender area.

About a month or two ago, I had my 1000cc injectors cleaned and flow tested.. Less than ideal results. 840cc, 820cc, 720cc, 720cc
So... I ended up purchasing some new FIC 1220 low z injectors.
Switched to speed density and got rid of the MAF. Finally able to start my car since the new year and I had some idle surge issues. I busted out my multimeter and found my ISC had a burnt out coil. Resistance in the other 3 coils were around 28ohms. Figured I'd check the ECU while I was diagnosing this idle issue. Drivers look like they saw some heat, but the guys at ECMTuning had a look over and assured me everything was fine and working as it should.


I replaced the ISC and my idle surge was gone.

This was the setup before I started my boost leak testing. I did put the BOV back on before I tested, and pressurized the system from the turbo compressor housing.


Found a leak. Look at all those bubbles!

I ordered another OEM EGR gasket, however it still leaked. I put high temp RTV on both sides and no more leaks.

Found another.. The flange didn't blow off, but it didn't take much for it to pop out either.

The BOV adapter coupler was shit, I knew it when I bought the car and it leaked like crazy. Had someone weld on the adapter to the aluminum pipe and no more leaks there either.

Also found leaks around the throttle body seal, so I got a new set from STM, and installed those carefully. Cleaned out the throttle body as it needed it desperately. Can anyone tell me WTF was in the coolant?
The picture is the bottom of the throttle body, FIAV.


In terms of boost leaks, it's no longer leaking in those areas, and boost seems to hold okay. Still leaks a little around the fuel pressure regulator adjustment screw and vacuum line to it.
I've smoke tested and can't see any smoke coming from the intake anymore. However, I'd like to get it holding better than this. My ISCPosition gradually falls to 0 after about 15-20 min of idling.

Here is a video of my recent boost leak test last night. Seems okay?


Went to a local pick apart junk yard, and grabbed a new steering wheel as my old one was really worn. 4th gen bolts up relatively easily, minor cutting needed to fit the cruise wand.
=( The airbag cover lifted again. UGGH
Don't pay attention to the spaghetti under the dash. I was trying to figure out why my power locks were not locking/unlocking with the alarm system I put on. It's since been cleaned up.
BTW, I learned you can rebuild our door actuators during this process! I rebuilt mine, and it works like new. I got a few motors left as spares, or if anyone needs their door actuators fixed hit me up!

Adjust your BISS to fix the ISCPosition
It took 1:22 to go from 30 to 10? I'd say that's successful. I don't even test that high and I generally look for 1:30 from 25 to 10. After that, the less pressure, the longer it should take until you're bored and you call it good.

Okay, so it's been awhile apparently since I last updated you all... lets get back into it.

Last year I fixed a bunch of little issues that kept me from getting the car tuned. I had an overheating issue (we'll come back to this later)... added a triple core mishimoto radiator. lowered the thermostat... drilled a small hole in the thermostat, and finally my temps stayed down below 216f. Usually hovering around 210-216, spiking to 220-223f when giving it a bunch of boost for prolonged periods of time. I had Rix Racing remote tune my car, and night and day difference in terms of performance.

New issue arrives, my clutch is slipping like crazy under moderate boost...yay. This was the end of my driving season, and start to a long and cold winter.
Previous owner decided 4 bolts was enough to hold this e-Bay clutch in place. Most likely the reason why it was slipping.



Transmission was a little bit dirty.



Gave it a little cleaning. Nothing crazy, but at least I could now touch pretty much anything in the engine bay and not get oil or grease on me. Small win.


While you're in there...might as well clean this up too and replaced the rear main seal.

I replaced the clutch with a SouthBend kevlar clutch and pressure plate. I didn't want to reuse the xtd lightened flywheel that came with the car, so I purchased the first 2g oem clutch I saw on Facebook Marketplace and got it resurfaced. Called a buddy of mine over to give me a hand installing the transmission back. Only after installing it, and wiring everything back up, and trying to start the car I realize I might have a problem. How come no one told me there is a difference between AWD and FWD clutches?

Or better yet...why didn't I think to ask or research this before making the purchase? FFF!! I go to start the car and I hear the starter try to engage...but nothing. Well fk.
Whats more fun than doing a clutch job? Doing it twice, of course, and this time without my buddy. Finally got the clutch and flywheel back on. The poor pressure plate took some abuse when I took the transmission off the second time.


Sometime during all this, I got a deal on some used coilovers as my current suspension was shot. Little upgrade, nothing fancy.


Making progress!! While I had everything apart, noticed just a little bit of oil coming from the cam seals...ha... replaced those as well.

Lookin crusty.


Glamor shot...things finally put back together. Pay no attention to the sanded strut towers, or missing windshield cowel. I assure you it looks better now and everything is back where it belongs.


These were some goodies I ordered from Amayama, to replace the rusty and crusty...or missing bolts.


Maybe now it's time to start making it look nice.
Got a sweet set of drip rails from a friend parting out locally... Thank you Mike!
Before


After


Ordered a ppf vinyl roll from Alibaba, and waited until the weather got hot to try my hand at wrapping the car. Doesn't look great, but better than before. "If you squint...it's mint!"




Unfortunately, this story doesn't have a happy ending though.
I had noticed my oil pressure was low...kinda always has been. I've been trying to fix it various ways. Cleaning up any oil leaks I'd find, replacing the oil filter housing, pressure relief valve, thicker oil, lucas oil stabilizer, but nothing seemed to help. I made a post on tuners not that long ago, link below.
https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/low-oil-pressure.550583/

TLDR: Car has crankwalk, probably always had it. I had dropped the pan earlier in my ownership to fix the oil leaks, clean the rust and repaint, but never even thought to check the crank for play. Drove it recently 40 miles, and at idle I was sitting at 0psi of oil pressure. Played with the gas pedal to keep the rpms high to not starve the crank, and drove it home. Dropped the pan, and the crank moves a good 2-3mm in either direction.

I had found a 6 bolt at a local pick-n-pull, two years ago, as something I'd eventually build.
Turns out, this one spun a bearing, oil squirter had broken off. Cylinder walls look good, same with the crankshaft, however I am going to get it inspected, polished, and cut if needed. Will probably need to bore it out to 85.5", the block was all original from a 91 Eclipse GST/X (I don't remember).

I have no clue how to build what I want, and could use some advice from you fine knowledgable folks.

I'm looking to have something capable of handling 500-600hp. (Probably closer to 500)
I don't know what pistons, rods, bearings, springs, cams, etc... I need to achieve this goal. I have no idea what I should expect to pay for it either.

I do have the possibility of buying from an OG dsmer, a motor capable of 1200hp, easily handling over 60lbs of boost for $10k CAD, but it's overbuilt for my application.
Feel free to leave a comment on the build thus far, and any advice on the engine building. Thanks!

I have a fwd Tsi as well and had to do my trans twice too 1st gear was shot in the one I got from the junkyard.

Take a look at my car profile. I’m 6 bolt swapped and probably make 500 or more at 40 psi. Haven’t dyno tuned it yet. Plan on having Rix street tune it to make the city drivability better then hop on the rollers.

My build is super basic. I really went bare minimum to produce the power I wanted and fit my budget. I don’t beat on it all the time but it’s a lot of fun when I let her rip

That's a nice build! Just confirming your build is with a stock bottom end, minus the bearings? Unfortunately for me, I won't be able to keep a stock bottom end.

I don't plan on beating on my car either. Well the once or twice down the track yearly against some buddies, but mostly 99% street driven, highway driven to see friends, hang out and talk cars.

I forgot to mention, but I wanted to use the 2g head from my 7 bolt. Is there anything I need to worry about when buying pistons and rods and using the 2g head?

explicitgst said:

That's a nice build! Just confirming your build is with a stock bottom end, minus the bearings? Unfortunately for me, I won't be able to keep a stock bottom end.

I don't plan on beating on my car either. Well the once or twice down the track yearly against some buddies, but mostly 99% street driven, highway driven to see friends, hang out and talk cars.

I forgot to mention, but I wanted to use the 2g head from my 7 bolt. Is there anything I need to worry about when buying pistons and rods and using the 2g head?

Click to expand...

I'm sure you already know this, but the 2g head will need to have its stud holes drilled out an extra mm to compensate for the 6 bolt head studs.

explicitgst said:

That's a nice build! Just confirming your build is with a stock bottom end, minus the bearings? Unfortunately for me, I won't be able to keep a stock bottom end

Click to expand...

I did add the Kiggly girdle and ARP main studs that are required after having it line honed. You should do the same

99eclipsegs-2t said:

I'm sure you already know this, but the 2g head will need to have its stud holes drilled out an extra mm to compensate for the 6 bolt head studs.

Click to expand...

Yeah for sure, was planning on the ARP main studs. L19 is overkill no?

chrisman287 said:

I did add the Kiggly girdle and ARP main studs that are required after having it line honed. You should do the same

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was certain on both those items. I just seem confused/stuck on a good piston rod combo.

My list as so far,

Head
https://www.kigglyracing.com/product-page/steel-street-beehive-valvesprings
https://www.kigglyracing.com/product-page/hla-pressure-regulator-4g63 (already have this on a spare head)
https://stmtuned.com/products/ferrea-4g63-dsm-evo-valve-guides?variant=32645250908245
https://stmtuned.com/products/vs1010-vs1011-ferrea-4g63-valve-stem-seals
https://stmtuned.com/products/207-4201-arp-head-studs-4g63-6bolt-dsm, L19's are overkill no?
Should I upgrade the lifters while I'm in it?
https://stmtuned.com/products/gsc-power-division-zero-tick-lifters-4g63
https://stmtuned.com/products/mt00116-ble-solid-lifters-4g63-dsm-evo

I'm still rocking a b16g, so no real need to upgrade cams yet. But I do eventually want to go with an FP Red or Black.
Whenever I get around to upgrading the turbo I'll revisit the cams.

Block
https://www.kigglyracing.com/product-page/2-tooth-6-bolt-4g63-crank-trigger-sensor - probably not needed, but I rather have it, can always switch to a 12 tooth if I ever swap ECUs.
https://www.kigglyracing.com/product-page/main-girdle-6-bolt-4g63
https://stmtuned.com/products/5m1144h-acl-main-bearings-4g63-6bolt
https://stmtuned.com/products/4b1146h-acl-rod-bearings-4g63-6bolt
https://stmtuned.com/products/stm-4g63-balance-shaft-removal-kit
Cams and pistons?? I would like 8.5:1, similar to the current 2g setup, no more than 9:1.